Leland Yee is no longer a story… but CNN is.

posted at 8:31 am on April 5, 2014 by Jazz Shaw

It’s not that there isn’t still an important news story unfolding in the saga of California State Senator Leland Yee… there is. In fact, federal indictments were handed down on Friday and one of his alleged co-conspirators was ordered released on a quarter million dollars bail. But the fact is that there’s a fair chance that this story has pretty much been told already. Assuming the allegations are true, the situation has been fairly well described. A hugely corrupt and even more hypocritical Democrat who ran on stricter gun control laws was caught channeling campaign donations and bribes to expedite the illegal smuggling of weapons. It would take something truly extraordinary to make this story shine with a fresh light. (Think of something along the lines of the deals going much further up the food chain to bigger fish or some sort of established tie to a known terrorist organization beyond the local gangs.)

What’s really begun to come into focus here is the mind boggling side bar involving the complete radio silence on this at CNN. It’s gone well beyond the level of slow response, lack of interest or some sort of administrative snit at the network and moved into the range of the truly bizarre. We’ve already seen the list of other news outlets covering this story. The LA Times has it. The Gray Lady was on it on day one. The WaPo is still covering it in their national section. For Pete’s sakes, the first link I included at the beginning of this article was from CBS. (And if anybody was going to bury this story…) Given the speed at which the competitive news cycle moves, entire species could have risen and fallen to extinction since this story broke and yet there has been not a single flickering frame of images on CNN where the story is mentioned. There was not, as of Friday evening rush hour, a single syllable on their web site.

This is, as I said above, beyond curious. And while this is nothing but personal conjecture on my part at this point, it couldn’t possibly have been an accident. Somebody had to have made a conscious decision that Leland Yee’s name would not be uttered on CNN, and that person must have been pretty high up. But why? What’s so special about Yee? It’s not as if they haven’t covered other Democrats in trouble.

Let’s reflect on these stories for a moment and then recall something. Leland Yee allegedly tried to sell a freaking rocket launcher to a federal agent.

CNN was making something of a comeback this past year, at least in my opinion. They pulled off a real coup when they snagged Jake Tapper from ABC, bringing a huge shot in the arm to their credibility and image of unbiased, hard hitting reporting. (Pro-Tip to ABC: if you’d just given Tapper the chair at This Week I bet he would have stayed. And the show would be competitive again.) Victor Blackwell does very well for them on the weekends, and honestly, to this day I couldn’t tell you if he’s a conservative or a liberal. Smerconish has been doing pretty well with his new show as well. But not even they touched it. I don’t know if we’ll ever find out the real reasons at the bottom of this particular well, but there just has to be more here than meets the eye.

An UPDATE of sorts. After I began working on this story on Friday, I asked Jake Tapper on Twitter whether or not he’d gotten a chance to cover it yet. This was his response.

He pointed out that the Fort Hood story was big on Friday, but I take that to mean that he, at least, plans on talking about it when Yee is next in court. It would be interesting to hear his side of things as to why this took so long.

Blowback

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Tapper should have gotten a call from Fox instead of CNN. He’s now the big fish in a small pond instead of the other way around. If he’s satisfied, fine. That CNN is not covering this is understandable given who’s pocket they’re in and how close this story resemble F&F. In fact, Yee could assemble his defense around that, claiming to be doing his own undercover investigation.

I haven’t followed this story closely enough to know why he’s holding those three excellent games, but he’s a Democrat so I’m going to guess he wants to ban them as part of his party’s general initiative to make everything suck.

CNN seems to be torn between a small minority of voices there who at least grasp the concept of taking a skeptical look at both sides of the political spectrum, and the larger majority of the company’s hierarchy, which truly thinks its mission is to be a more mature version of MSNBC.

In that way, it’s the cable version of CBS (long rumored to be CNN’s future merger partner) in recent years — you might get some reporting that didn’t lie down for the Democrats from people like Sheryl Attkisson, Mark Knoller and Laura Logan. But it’s always the exception, not the rule, and if you complain too loudly, you go the way of Attkisson last month, or Bernie Goldberg a decade ago.

At least Tapper’s on record now, so when Leland Yee has his preliminary hearing and the prosecutors lay out the case, we’ll see if Jake’s show acknowledges it (which, even if it does, still may not mean CNN’s website uploads a story on Yee).

Uncalled-for swipe at CBS, which tells me you’re not a regular Evening News viewer. While certainly NOT the bastion of up-front reporting we could all wish, they ROUTINELY start with hard news (Unlike the REVOLTING and insipid Dianne Sawyer: the reason we switched from ABC after 30+ years.) and do a surprisingly fair job of presenting ALL sides of the story in 90% of the case. Matter of fact, after the Newtown shooting, they had a LUCID medical doctor (vice bearded, plaid-shirt clad, snaggle-toothed stereotype) on as the Second Amendment advocate, and he did a wonderful job refuting the hysteria.

As well, while Sharyl Attkisson might have had to fight toooth and nail to get any of her magnificent reporting on air, the fact is SHE DID, and hence we know who she is to cheer her on.

One can scream about network news bias and it’s SO glaringly, sickeningly obvious on the other ones, but to give CBS their due, they come through and raise your eyebrows sometimes.

And while this is nothing but personal conjecture on my part at this point,
jazz, I stopped reading there…

nonpartisan on April 5, 2014 at 9:12 AM

nonp only reads factual reporting- none of this opinion stuff, thank you very much!! How dare a lowly HA blogger impugn the sterling reputation of an unbiased newscorp such as CNN anyway?

Yes, impugning the reputation, and based on what? Just because they ignore a “local” story about a gun-running Democrat who also supports heavy 2nd Amendment restrictions?

Hey, wait- shouldn’t nonp be the first to call for Senator Yee’s head, considering the heinous nature of his crimes? I mean …gunrunning, after all. And if CNN is covering for a gunrunning politician…well, nonp will be furious, when he reads about it in the paper!.

you on the other hand, only read aceofspades, hotair and watch foxnews while chomping on cheetoes…

so who’s the closeminded one?

nonpartisan on April 5, 2014 at 9:18 AM

Interesting that your name is nonpartisan yet you throw out a stereotypical, partisan, blanket statement about me when you nothing of my reading habits. Besides, I prefer pistachios over Cheetos anyway!

I merely pointed out that you stopped reading after Jazz used personal conjecture, something a closed minded, partisan would do because he or she doesn’t want to hear what the other side thinks.

At the very least, Jazz gave you the courtesy of letting you know that what he was about to say was personal conjecture, something that most media outlets don’t bother doing, yet they continue to report news as if it was fact.

What about Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. losing $6 Billion dollars…Money that just disappeared?

[workingclass artist on April 5, 2014 at 8:36 AM]

The question is did Hillary resign because investigators were starting to ask her about her embezzling of the money, or did she resign because she felt she’d embezzled enough money and it was time to give another Democrat the opportunity?

I assume you were talking about my comment, so I’ll reply — CBS is the best of the three broadcast networks right now. But as Attkisson noted, her situation was the opposite of the CNN/Leland Yee kerfuffle — while CNN’s webmasters are playing the Praetorian Guard to prevent those outside of California from finding out about the scandal, a lot of Sharyl’s stories were Internet-only fare. They were posted to the CBS News website and got lots of links from conservative websites, but the CBS Evening News’ producers found other stories to consume their 30-minute broadcast, and her reports never made it to air.

So if your bar is the quality of news at ABC or NBC (or even CNN), then CBS looks good. But there are definitely people in the news division who look at what Attkisson, Logan or Knoller are doing and wondering why this stuff is getting even website play, and why can’t they go back to the high journalistic standards of the Dan Rather era?

What about Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. losing $6 Billion dollars…Money that just disappeared?

[workingclass artist on April 5, 2014 at 8:36 AM]

The question is did Hillary resign because investigators were starting to ask her about her embezzling of the money, or did she resign because she felt she’d embezzled enough money and it was time to give another Democrat the opportunity?

…and how close this story resemble F&F. In fact, Yee could assemble his defense around that, claiming to be doing his own undercover investigation.

Kissmygrits on April 5, 2014 at 8:44 AM

The only justification Obama has is that he is, at least, in the executive branch, so federal law enforcement is in his job description. As Jazz says, a freaking rocket launcher . Are we Afghanistan, do civilians need to shoot down American attack helicopters?

I feel CNN let slip more than a glimpse of their editorial stance during the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin shooting. The network basically had Zimmerman tried and found guilty from day one, and it went downhill from there so obvious was its bias. It was embarrassing and very disappointing to see the endless race-baiting discussion panels straining to make it a racial issue instead of self-defense, as well as the phony voice-analysis “experts” playing the recorded screams over and over doing their best to determine it was actually Trayvon Martin screaming for help as he sat pounding Zimmerman’s head into the concrete.

It would take something truly extraordinary to make this story shine with a fresh light. (Think of something along the lines of the deals going much further up the food chain to bigger fish or some sort of established tie to a known terrorist organization beyond the local gangs.)

There are pots of serious issues that could be discussed by the talking heads in connection with this. Beyond the obvious political corruption angle (which they’ve shown can de drawn out for essentially ever).

Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three felonious California Democrats is an investigative reporters wet dream. Are there any investigative reporters? Anyone? Bueller?

A federal grand jury indictment against state Sen. Leland Yee and 28 other defendants adds a conspiracy charge to the seven felony counts the now-suspended lawmaker faces for allegedly promising political favors and gun trafficking to undercover agents in exchange for $62,600 in campaign contributions.

And nonpartisan weirdly doesn’t use this thread to go off on some anti-gun rights rant? Could it be because a “D” was busted?

The only justification Obama has is that he is, at least, in the executive branch, so federal law enforcement is in his job description. As Jazz says, a freaking rocket launcher . Are we Afghanistan, do civilians need to shoot down American attack helicopters?

I think it’s ridiculous that Christie’s BridgeGate gets far more coverage than Yee’s gunrunning (and I am no Supporter of that walking doughnut). But look at the relative number of comments even here, a nominally conservative site. Where’s the outrage, the mocking, the public shaming that Christie got?

I think it’s ridiculous that Christie’s BridgeGate gets far more coverage than Yee’s gunrunning (and I am no Supporter of that walking doughnut). But look at the relative number of comments even here, a nominally conservative site. Where’s the outrage, the mocking, the public shaming that Christie got?

Fenris on April 5, 2014 at 11:10 AM

Well, to be fair, if Yee had been pimped as the Republican Great White Whale Hope for the 2016 Presidential Election, he might have gotten more mocking.

As it is; he is another corrupt, lying, rat-bast@rd Democrat- ho hum, really. Just a soupçon of delicious irony, barely enough for an appetizer.

It would take something truly extraordinary to make this story shine with a fresh light.

Leland was brokering a deal to bring missiles into the US. While angling to become Treasurer of California. And CNN ignores it. If Yee was brokering a missile deal between Venezuela and Filipino terrorists that’s one thing. But he’s importing missiles into the US. Who thinks that’s a good idea?

I also go over to the DailyKos — and, while I might laugh a lot, I read the chosen articles to the end. After all, it helps to understand every illogical nuance of a liberal argument — so much better to have good conversation with the liberals at the table.

My niece, who voted for Mr. Obama and who is out of work, announced at breakfast that she had applied for Obamacare. I asked where she was going to get the $30 per month she’s required to pay, she was silent — for I know that $30 is about all she’s making dog-sitting per month now, and her bank account is empty.

I then reminded her that a taxpayer wouldn’t be able to buy a touchscreen laptop like the one she spent her remaining bank account funds on last week, because he or she would have to pay thousands of dollars for my niece’s insurance. Then I asked what the State allowed her to have asset-wise before she could qualify for MediCal, before winding up by reminding her that I was a taxpayer and all of my computers are at least six years old — because I’m paying for her Obamacare.

Silly request I suppose … afterall he is a Gun Grabbing Scheistkoff in one life and a fellow who deals in RPG’s and MANPADS sales in his ‘alternate’ life.
Kalifornia Gimmedats and their leadership … who’da thunk it?

Well, I think it’s logical for CNN to ignore the Yee story, because any minute spent talking about Leland Yee is one less minute available for expert analysis and wild speculation about the Malaysian jetliner. Speaking of which…

Says a lot about how hateful and shallow you really are. Calling yourself a fan of Maher is by extension condoning and encouraging manure such as this:

On his Twitter page, Maher cracked “wise” on Saturday, comparing unpaid college basketball players to slaves in the American colonies.

“George Bush, over the Memorial Day weekend, held the Wounded Warrior 100K [bike ride], which was a kind of a celebration for wounded warriors who came back from Iraq, and I guess they walked or ran or something on their prosthetic limbs. And I found this to be nauseating. I mean, first he sends them off to war to get their limbs blown off, and then he has them over for a barbecue. This is like the Cleveland guy having a pizza party for those girls he had in his basement.”

“JFK was far from perfect, but he was a true wit and a sex machine and he knew how to wear a pair of shades. Reagan was an amiable square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called ‘Mommy.’”

“When Reagan was elected, Sarah Palin was barely 16, probably pregnant, but still in third grade”

“Its official: women in the Tea Party have replaced Rand Paul with #TedCruz as the guy they think of when their husband is humping them.”

In this next quote, your hero is referring to George HW and Barbara Bush

“Over the years they were often mistaken for a same-sex couple”

“Selling pot allowed me to get through college and make enough money to start off in comedy.”

“Kudos to Barry for restoring constitution re war powers. Tea People shld luv it but of course wont cuz President Blackenstein did it”

“God in the Old Testament is a psychotic mass murderer”

Yes, I can see why you’re a fan of Maher. Because he echoes all of your views!

…{CNN} plans on talking about it when Yee is next in court. It would be interesting to hear his side of things as to why this took so long.

Better than even money that the delay is due to a more spectacular story coming along… Already, the candidates are:
1) 5 year old hacks X-Box
2) The Malaysian Air black box ‘Eveready bunny’ has died
3) #43 paints!